This work explores an underemployed visual method in marketing research called participatory photography, in which participants take their own photos for the needs of the research project. This hugely appropriate method of interpretive research stands apart from classic photo-elicitation by accentuating respondent participation and using photography as a mode of knowledge to enable a better consideration of the embodied dimension of consumption experiences and an in-depth analysis of how individuals interact with their social and material environment. Here, we connect participatory photography to other visual techniques and provide guidance on putting it into practice, with an emphasis on data production and analysis. The article identifies the domains of marketing in which this method can prove most insightful.
ArnouldEJDionD (2018) Visual representations. Marketing Research and Applications33(3): 3–6.
2.
ArnouldEJThompsonCJ (2005) Consumer Culture Theory (CCT): Twenty years of research. Journal of Consumer Research31(4): 868–882.
3.
AudouxCGilletA (2015) Collaborative action research. Une révolution de la connaissance. Rennes: Presses de l’EHESP.
4.
AvenierMJThomasC (2015) Finding one’s way around various methodological guidelines for doing rigorous case studies: A comparison of four epistemological frameworks. Management Information Systems20(1): 61–98.
5.
BalomenouNGarrodB (2016) A review of participant-generated image methods in the social sciences. Journal of Mixed Methods Research10(4): 335–351.
6.
BanksM (2001) Visual Methods in Social Research. London: SAGE.
7.
BanksSBrydon-MillerM (2018) Ethics in Participatory Research for Health and Social Well-Being: Cases and Commentaries. New York: Routledge.
8.
BardhiFEckhardtGMArnouldEJ (2012) Liquid relationship to possessions. Journal of Consumer Research39(3): 510–529.
9.
BasilM (2011) Use of photography and video in observational research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal14(3): 246–257.
10.
Béji-BécheurAÖzçağlar-ToulouseN (2014) Institutionalization of sustainable development and the emergence of sustainable marketing. Marketing Research and Applications (French Edition)29(3): 3–9.
11.
Béji-BécheurAÖzçağlar-ToulouseNZouaghiS (2012) Ethnicity introspected: Researchers in search of their identity. Journal of Business Research65(4): 504–510.
12.
BelkR (2014) Collaborating in visual consumer research. International Journal of Business Anthropology5(1): 79–92.
13.
BellK (2013) Participants’ motivations and co-construction of the qualitative research process. Qualitative Social Work12(4): 523–539.
14.
BigandoE (2013) The use of photo elicitation interview to grasp everyday landscapes: A method able to produce an inhabitant reflexivity. Cybergeo: European Journal of Geography645: 1–34.
15.
Brace-GovanJ (2007) Participant photography in visual ethnography. International Journal of Market Research49(6): 735–750.
16.
BrownN (2022) Scope and continuum of participatory research. International Journal of Research & Method in Education45(2): 200–211.
17.
BurkePADollingerSJ (2005) A picture’s worth a thousand words: Language use in the autophotographic essay. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin31(4): 536–548.
18.
CargoMMercerSL (2008) The value and challenges of participatory research: Strengthening its practice. Annual Review of Public Health29: 325–350.
19.
ChauvinPMReixF (2015) Visual sociologies. History and avenues for research. L’Année Sociologique65(1): 15–41.
20.
CléretBDehlingALeroyJRokkaJSohierAHerbertM (2018) The videographic approach in marketing research: Which methodological protocol?Marketing Research and Applications33(3): 90–127.
21.
ConordS (2007) Usages et fonctions de la photographie. Ethnologie française37(1): 11–22.
22.
ConordS (2017) When respondents become guides to the researcher-photographer. A “collaborative” approach in visual sociology. French Journal of Visual Methods 1 : 1–38. Available at: https://rfmv.fr
23.
ConordSCunyC (2014) Towards a “visual turn” in urban studies? Photographic approaches. Visual Ethnography3(1): 1–6.
24.
DionD (2007) The contributions of visual anthropology to the study of consumer behavior. Marketing Research and Applications22(1): 61–78.
25.
DionDSabriOGuillardV (2014) Home sweet messy home: Managing symbolic pollution. Journal of Consumer Research41(3): 565–589.
26.
DionDSitzLRemyE (2011) Embodied ethnicity: The ethnic affiliation grounded in the body. Consumption Markets & Culture14(3): 311–331.
27.
DrewSEDuncanRESawyerSM (2010) Visual storytelling: A beneficial but challenging method for health research with young people. Qualitative Health Research20(12): 1677–1688.
28.
DrewSGuilleminM (2014) From photographs to findings: Visual meaning-making and interpretive engagement in the analysis of participant-generated images. Visual Studies29(1): 54–67.
29.
Duteil-OgataF (2007) La photo-interview: Dialogues with Japanese people. Ethnologie française37(1): 69–78.
30.
EnrightEO’SullivanM (2012) Producing different knowledge and producing knowledge differently’: Rethinking physical education research and practice through participatory visual methods. Sport, Education and Society17(1): 35–55.
31.
FerreiraMCScarabotoD (2016) “My plastic dreams”: Towards an extended understanding of materiality and the shaping of consumer identities. Journal of Business Research69(1): 191–207.
32.
FinnJL (1994) The promise of participatory research. Journal of Progressive Human Services5(2): 25–42.
33.
GagnonÉClémentMDeshaiesMHRaizenneÉ (2014) Functions and limits of public participation: Nursing home resident committees and their autonomy. Recherches Sociographiques55(1): 31–52.
34.
GanassaliS (2016) The online video wall: Presentation and contributions of a hybrid protocol. Marketing Research and Applications (French Edition)31(4): 70–88.
35.
GarrodB (2009) Understanding the relationship between tourism destination imagery and tourist photography. Journal of Travel Research47(3): 346–358.
36.
GélineauLDufourÉBélisleM (2012) Quand recherche-action participative et pratiques AVEC se conjuguent: enjeux de définition et d’équilibre des savoirs. Recherches Qualitatives13: 13–54.
37.
GervereauL (2020) Voir, comprendre, analyser les images. Paris: La découverte.
38.
GioiaDACorleyKGHamiltonAL (2013) Seeking qualitative rigor in inductive research: Notes on the Gioia methodology. Organizational Research Methods16(1): 15–31.
39.
GlawXInderKKableAHazeltonM (2017) Visual methodologies in qualitative research: Autophotography and photo elicitation applied to mental health research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods16(1): 1–8.
40.
GorgeHÖzçağlar-ToulouseNToussaintS (2015) Wellness and well-being in consumption: A comparative analysis. Marketing Research and Applications30(2): 104–123.
41.
GotschiEDelveRFreyerB (2009) Participatory photography as a qualitative approach to obtain insights into farmer groups. Field Methods21(3): 290–308.
42.
GubriumAHarperK (2013) Participatory Visual and Digital Methods. Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
43.
GuellCOgilvieD (2015) Picturing commuting: Photovoice and seeking well-being in everyday travel. Qualitative Research15(2): 201–218.
44.
GuilleminMDrewS (2010) Questions of process in participant-generated visual methodologies. Visual Studies25(2): 175–188.
45.
HarperD (2002) Talking about pictures: A case for photo elicitation. Visual Studies17(1): 13–25.
46.
HarperD (2012) Visual Sociology. New York: Routledge.
47.
HeisleyDDLevySJ (1991) Autodriving: A photoelicitation technique. Journal of Consumer Research18(3): 257–272.
48.
HoggMKMaclaranP (2008) Rhetorical issues in writing interpretivist consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal11(2): 130–146.
49.
Honba HonbaC (2018) Objet et pratiques sémiotiques: quelques enjeux médiatiques du support photographique. Signata. Annales des Sémiotiques/Annals of Semiotics9: 551–574.
50.
HurtienneMWKnowlesJHurtienneLE (2022) Participant photography for HRD: Method, benefits, and ethics. European Journal of Training and Development46(7–8): 740–753.
51.
JohnsonGA (2011) A child’s right to participation: Photovoice as methodology for documenting the experiences of children living in Kenyan orphanages. Visual Anthropology Review27(2): 141–161.
52.
KellyKJ (2017) Photovoice: Capturing American Indian youths’ dietary perceptions and sharing behavior-changing implications. Social Marketing Quarterly23(1): 64–79.
53.
KjeldgaardDAskegaardS (2006) The glocalization of youth culture: The global youth segment as structures of common difference. Journal of Consumer Research33(2): 231–247.
La RoccaF (2007) Introduction to visual sociology. Societies95(1): 33–40.
56.
LahireB (1996) Risking interpretation. Interpretive relevance and overinterpretation in the social sciences. Enquête3: 61–88.
57.
LaplantineF (2007) Penser en images. Ethnologie Française37(1): 47–56.
58.
LécaBPléL (2013) Une épistémologie à hauteur d’homme: l’anthropologie interprétative de Clifford Geertz et son apport potentiel à la recherche francophone en management. Management et avenir60(2): 35–52.
59.
LefebvreH (1974) La production de l’espace. Paris: Anthropos.
60.
LenouvelD (2021) From the limits of instituted participation to the emergence of new frameworks of political relations. Cahiers de l’action57(1): 71–79.
61.
LiebenbergL (2009) The visual image as discussion point: Increasing validity in boundary crossing research. Qualitative Research9(4): 441–467.
62.
LlewellynN (2021) The embodiment of consumer knowledge. Journal of Consumer Research28(1): 212–234.
63.
LlewellynS (2003) What counts as “theory” in qualitative management and accounting research? Introducing five levels of theorizing. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal16(4): 662–708.
64.
LoefflerTA (2004) A photo elicitation study of the meanings of outdoor adventure experiences. Journal of Leisure Research36(4): 536–556.
65.
MacDougallD (2004) L’anthropologie visuelle et les chemins du savoir. Journal des anthropologues. Association française des anthropologues98–99: 279–233.
66.
MannayD (2015) Visual, Narrative and Creative Research Methods: Application, Reflection and Ethics. New York: Routledge.
67.
MasonP (2005) Visual data in applied qualitative research: Lessons from experience. Qualitative Research5(3): 325–346.
68.
MeyerM (2017) From object to tool: Photography in the service of social science observation. Recherches Qualitatives22: 8–23.
69.
MeyerREHöllererMAJancsaryDVan LeeuwenT (2013) The visual dimension in organizing, organization, and organization research: Core ideas, current developments, and promising avenues. Academy of Management Annals7(1): 489–555.
70.
MickDG (2006) Meaning and mattering through transformative consumer research. Advances in Consumer Research33(1): 1–4.
71.
MurrayLNashM (2017) The challenges of participant photography: A critical reflection on methodology and ethics in two cultural contexts. Qualitative Health Research27(6): 923–937.
72.
NashM (2014) Picturing mothers: A photovoice study of body image in pregnancy. Health Sociology Review23(3): 242–253.
73.
NdioneLCRemyE (2018) Joining the image to the word to understand the cultural meaning of practices: What photo-elicitation reveals. Marketing Research and Applications33(3): 65–89.
74.
NolandCM (2006) Auto-photography as research practice: Identity and self-esteem research. Journal of Research Practice2(1): 1–19.
75.
OliffeJLBottorffJLKellyMHalpinM (2008) Analyzing participant produced photographs from an ethnographic study of fatherhood and smoking. Research in Nursing & Health31(5): 529–539.
76.
OlivierDeSardanJP (2008) The Rigor of the Qualitative: The Empirical Constraints of Socio-Anthropological Interpretation. Louvain-La-Neuve: Editions Academia-Bruylant.
77.
OzanneJLMoscatoEMKunkelDR (2013) Transformative photography: Evaluation and best practices for eliciting social and policy changes. Journal of Public Policy & Marketing32(1): 45–65.
78.
PainH (2012) A literature review to evaluate the choice and use of visual methods. International Journal of Qualitative Methods11(4): 303–319.
79.
PainR (2004) Social geography: Participatory research. Progress in Human Geography28(5): 652–663.
80.
PapinotC (1992) Vers une pratique photographie participante?Journal des anthropologues49(1): 151–158.
81.
PatrascuM (2020) Explorer le travail créatif indépendant « avec » et « par » l’image: un dispositif de collecte et d’analyse de données visuelles participatives. Recherches Qualitatives – Hors-série25: 74–94.
82.
PauwelsL (2010) Visual sociology reframed: An analytical synthesis and discussion of visual methods in social and cultural research. Sociological Methods & Research38(4): 545–581.
83.
PauwelsL (2015) Participatory visual research revisited: A critical-constructive assessment of epistemological, methodological and social activist tenets. Ethnography16(1): 95–117.
84.
PetermansAKentAVan CleempoelK (2014) Photo-elicitation: Using photographs to read retail interiors through consumers’ eyes. Journal of Business Research67(11): 2243–2249.
85.
PietteA (1992) Photography as a mode of anthropological knowledge. Terrain18: 129–136.
86.
PrinsE (2010) Participatory photography: A tool for empowerment or surveillance?Action Research8(4): 426–443.
87.
RadleyA (2010) What people do with pictures. Visual Studies25(3): 268–279.
88.
RayL (2020) Social theory, photography and the visual aesthetic of cultural modernity. Cultural Sociology14(2): 139–159.
89.
RobichaudASchwimmerM (2020) Critical impasses in participatory research: Lessons from epistemological debates in critical sociology. Questions Vives33. Available at: http://journals.openedition.org/questionsvives/4713
90.
RohaniLSAungMRohaniK (2014) One step closer to the field: Visual methods in marketing and consumer research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal17(4): 481–494.
91.
RokkaJHietanenJ (2018) On positioning videography as a tool for theorizing. Recherche et Applications en Marketing (English Edition)33(3): 106–121.
92.
SaatciogluBCorusC (2019) Towards a macromarketing and consumer culture theory intersection: Participatory and deliberative methodologies. Journal of Macromarketing39(1): 9–24.
93.
SandbergJ (2005) How do we justify knowledge produced within interpretive approaches?Organizational Research Methods8(1): 41–68.
94.
Sarna-WojcickiDPerretMEitzelMVFortmannL (2017) Where are the missing coauthors? Authorship practices in participatory research. Rural Sociology82(4): 713–746.
95.
ScottRCaylaJCovaB (2017) Selling pain to the saturated self. Journal of Consumer Research44(1): 22–43.
96.
ShorttHLWarrenSK (2017) Grounded visual pattern analysis: Photographs in organizational field studies. Organizational Research Methods22(2): 539–563.
97.
SjöbergJD’OnofrioA (2020) Moving global horizons: Imagining selfhood, mobility and futurities through creative practice in ethnographic research. Culture and Psychology26(4): 732–748.
98.
StegerMFShimYRushBRBrueskeLAShinJYMerrimanLA (2013) The mind’s eye: A photographic method for understanding meaning in people’s lives. The Journal of Positive Psychology8(6): 530–542.
99.
SwitzerS (2018) Towards a critical reading of participatory visual methods. In: Capous-DesyllasMMorgaineK (eds) Creating Social Change Through Creativity: Anti-Oppressive Arts-Based Research Methodologies. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 189–207.
100.
TianKBelkRW (2005) Extended self and possessions in the workplace. Journal of Consumer Research32(2): 297–310.
101.
Tissier-DesbordesE (2004) L’analyse de visuels: pour une complémentarité des principales approches. Décisions Marketing36(4): 63–74.
102.
Van Der RietM (2008) Participatory research and the philosophy of social science: Beyond the moral imperative. Qualitative Inquiry14(4): 546–565.
103.
VenkatramanMNelsonT (2008) From servicescape to consumptionscape: A photo-elicitation study of Starbucks in the New China. Journal of International Business Studies39(6): 1010–1026.
104.
VigursKKaraH (2017) Participants’ productive disruption of a community photo-elicitation project: Improvised methodologies in practice. International Journal of Social Research Methodology20(5): 513–523.
105.
WallersteinNDuranB (2017) The theoretical, historical and practice roots of CBPR. In: MinklerMWallersteinN (eds) Community-Based Participatory Research for Health: Advancing Social and Health Equity. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, pp. 17–29.
106.
WangC (2006) Youth participation in photovoice as a strategy for community change. Journal of Community Practice14(1–2): 147–161.
107.
WangCBurrisMA (1997) Photovoice: Concept, methodology, and use for participatory needs assessment. Health Education & Behavior24(3): 369–387.
108.
WarrenS (2005) Photography and voice in critical qualitative management research. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal18(6): 861–882.
109.
WilliamsonIRQuinceyKLondBJPapaloukasP (2021) Unanticipated voices? Reflections from our ongoing “adventures” with participant-authored photography, interviewing and interpretative phenomenology. Methods in Psychology5(3): 100062.
110.
YatesL (2010) The story they want to tell, and the visual story as evidence: Young people, research authority and research purposes in the education and health domains. Visual Studies25(3): 280–291.
111.
YipTCChanKPoonE (2012) Attributes of young consumers’ favorite retail shops: A qualitative study. Journal of Consumer Marketing29(7): 545–552.
